Happy New Year! For me 2012 was great but a bit unsettling as I suddenly found myself bored and tired of sitting behind a desk all day doing legal work. Perhaps ten years is too long for me to stay in any profession as I'm constantly looking for new and interesting challenges. But there are bills to pay and sometimes it seems there are few escape options. I remain happy and smiley on most days, surrounded by constant love from family and friends. Family, to me, the most important thing in life and a constant source of joy and stability. I've met many interesting people this year from all over the world. For this I'm grateful as cultural exploration is my main passion in life. This past weekend I had a wonderful trip through Maine and New Hampshire, filled with magical snowfalls and freezing temperatures. For me heaven and I will try to write a separate post at some point. With my recent trip to Vermont and now these states I quickly learned I love the New England area of America. It best suits my personality and outlook on life - simple is usually better. New England offers serenity, wonderful landscapes and true, kind people which are the pulse of America. I don't want to go through life surrounded by office buildings, sky scrapers and people focused only on money, power and outdoing everyone else. There is so much more to life than this.

I enter 2013 in a good place, very happy and optimistic about the future. Goals for the year are the same as always - to travel more and to have an open heart and mind along the way. Many pathways throughout the world, all open and just waiting to be walked upon. First trips in the new year will likely be to France and Russia.

Thanks to the few who take time to read my blog. I wish everyone much peace, happiness and many exciting journeys in the coming year. I'll leave you with one of my favorite passages from beloved author Ralph Waldo Emerson:

"The best part of every mind is not that which she knows, but that which hovers in gleams, suggestions, tantalizing, unpossessed, before her. Her firm recorded knowledge soon loses all interest for her. But this dancing chorus of thoughts and hopes is the quarry of her future, is her possibility..."

С Новым Годом! I rang in the New Year with Russian speakers, watching New Year's Eve TV shows on a Russian TV station and Putin's speech to the nation. It was interesting for me. I hope to visit Russia next month, if my Visa will arrive in time.

Yes, the weather up North was very Russian like but I like freezing temperatures and snow so I was very happy. Unfortunately, we don't get snow very often in the DC area. I hope you have the opportunity to visit this part of America someday. It's magnificent.

Russians do have a sense of humor after all! :) I hope to travel to both Moscow and St. Petersburg and stop in some more remote towns along the way. I'll be traveling with a local so it should be possible. Looking forward to the journey.

I found your journal by looking through the amazing pictures made by macos in different towns of the US where he was invited by people from Couchsurfing and slept nights in many unusual homes belonging to interesting people. I am myself a recent user of Couchsurfing, and though I have not yet had a chance to surf or host anyone, but would like to do so at a certain time. So if you plan to visit Moscow, feel free to write me about hosting (private message works best).

For Moscow, the most pleasant winterly weather is near end of February/early March, but the best time to visit in general is May through September. Do not go in November and December - it's too dark and too few days with the sun; even now, we had just one sunny day since the New Year.

Hi! I do plan on coming to Moscow next month if my visa will be processed by that time. The Russian visa scheme is a bit of a hassle! I love cold weather and snow so the winter weather in Russia is no problem for me. Unfortunately, it rarely snows in the DC area in the winter.

I will stay with Alex (macos) if I come. We have traveled a lot together in the past month and in the coming days you will see many posts from me of the same destinations he recently wrote about (New Hampshire, Maine, Pennsylvania). However, I'm very new to photography and my pictures will not be as beautiful as his. I've only been shooting for about five months and do not yet understand all of the technical components of photography.

I'm very interested in Russian culture so I'm pleased to have another Russian reader. Welcome! And your English is excellent!! Have you been to the States?

I am glad to have another English-speaking friend, too. Notify me when you are in Russia, and perhaps we can meet for a chat and a drink in Moscow unless I am out for traveling. I am a amateur photographer and take a lot of pictures, but I do not really want to publish my photos and keep them for family collection instead. My wife criticizes me for that, but I am too lazy to do postprocessing.

We have a lot of very nice and creative friends in Moscow; the question is though: do you know Russian? Unless that is visual art, the Russian culture is very much "literate" and requires a lot of language mastering.

Yes, I have been to the US three times so far, and even in the DC once. But they were all business visits. In the DC, I had an excursion around the Mall and the monuments, and had the luck to visit the Aviation and Space Museum. At that time the Moscow Space Flight Museum was closed and there was nothing related to space flight and astronomy in Moscow, so that was a really special exhibition to see. I know I missed all the other museums at the Mall, I need to come back to see them someday.

In fact, until recently I have been totally focused on Europe and traveled there exclusively. Last year I realized that I had undervalued the US very much and did not pay nearly as much attention to the country as it deserved. So my wife and I plan to go to discover the New World by car at a point of time when I have about four weeks available for traveling. We initially planned this adventure for September 2012, then moved it to April 2013, and now it is rescheduled even further away as I realized that April doesn't fit, too. Simply said, my job wants me too much. 8-0 But that will ultimately happen.

Да, я немного говорю по русский! :) But, I don't write Russian very well. I know the Cyrillic alphabet and can read a lot of words. Many are similar to the English counterpart. I will contact you if I have time in Moscow, but I don't want to spend too much time in the city. I like country areas and small villages much better. If you read some of my other posts you will quickly learn I'm not a city girl. I only live close to the city because of my work. Otherwise, I'd be on a peaceful farm in the middle of nowhere.

America is a beautiful and vast country to explore. So many different areas and landscapes. I think people here are very friendly and open, which is always helpful when you're traveling in a foreign land. I hope you have time to come back to us and please also contact me if you make it back to DC. I live in Arlington, VA, which is right outside of the city.

I barely know how to process photos so most of the images on here are in their pure form. Take care and please stay in touch!